The project in northern Bhutan will now be a stand-alone hydroelectric project with a capacity of around 2,560 megawatt without the irrigation component. Originally, its capacity was 4,060 megawatt.

In a telephone interview economic affairs secretary Dasho Sonam Tshering who is in New Delhi said the EJG had agreed upon the decision to downsize since it was found economically viable.

He said the Teri hydropower project will now start working on the detailed project report which will have to be submitted to the EJG.

One option earlier was to segregate cost between electricity component and civil works like building irrigation channels sourced from the dam. With this option it was found possible that the project will not be downsized.

Devoting cost entirely on electricity was found uneconomical since it would shoot up price of electricity and discourage buyers.

At 4,060MW capacity, the project would cost more than Nu 210B with a dam height of 265 metres.

If cost segregation was not possible, it was decided the project be downsized and used only for electricity purpose.

“The meeting was positive,” Dasho Sonam Tshering said adding the progress of the 10,000MW initiative in meeting the 2020 deadline was on track.

COPYRIGHT: ASIA NEWS NETWORK

Article source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/bhutan-india-agree-downsize-hydro-project-073007015.html

The Union minister of commerce and industry, Anand Sharma, during his meeting with Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, minister for economic affairs of Bhutan, informed him that the Director General of Foreign Trade has issued the relevant notification for the exemption.

“India values the special relationship with Bhutan and we will be happy to expand our multifaceted cooperation which already covers key sectors such as hydro-power, health, education, human resource development, media, telecom, ICT and infrastructure,” Sharma said.

Both leaders expressed satisfaction that progress in meeting the target of developing 10,000 MW of hydro power capacity in Bhutan by 2020 is on schedule. Bhutan has an estimated hydro-power potential of 30,000 MW with a little over 1,472 MW harnessed.

Three major hydro-electric power projects (HEPs) have been built with Indian assistance in Bhutan-336-MW Chukha, 60-MW Kurichhu and 1,020-MW Tala HEPs.

In July 2006, India and Bhutan signed an agreement wherein India agreed to develop and import 5000 MW of electricity from Bhutan by 2020. This target was revised to 10,000 MW during the PM’s visit to Bhutan in May 2008.

COPYRIGHT: ASIA NEWS NETWORK

Article source: http://my.news.yahoo.com/india-lifts-ban-bhutan-exports-073003258.html

All this struggling – climbing with leaden legs and oxygen-sapped lungs up a mountain – will result in much merit, my guide assures me.

“We need to accumulate merit to reduce suffering in the next world,” Tsewang says.

“Each time I go I collect merit but afterwards I have a cigarette so I lose some.”

There are many ways to increase merit, Tsewang says, through meditation, moral discipline and the three hour hike up to Tiger’s Nest.

The Buddhist monastery, with its white-washed walls and red fluted roofs, is perched like a giant swallow’s nest on a ferocious looking mountain that looms 900m above Paro, a small town in the west of forest-laden Bhutan.

Paro is already 2280m above sea level so the climb today will take us to well 3000m – above the elevation where one can be punished by altitude sickness.

But suffering from terrible headaches would no doubt result in more merit, my guide would say.

Thirtysomething Tsewang, wearing a traditional gho – a knee-length robe tied at the waist – has done this hike over a 100 times with guests of Uma Paro Hotel, a luxury boutique resort.

I, on the other hand, arrived in Bhutan three days ago without any intention of doing anything quite so serious as climbing the inner Himalayas – especially not in January – the middle of winter. I packed bathers in my suitcase but no hiking shoes, thinking I’d be spending my time in the hotel’s hot stone bath house.

But this monastery, built in the 8th century, is one of the country’s key tourist attractions and must be seen, Tsewang said when he picked me up at the airport.

Our first outing together – after checking in to my villa that comes with a personal butler – was a 10 minute drive to the centre of Paro to buy a $US29 pair of imitation Adidas sneakers.

“How are the shoes?” Tsewang calls back to me as he gallops in to the half-way point – a cafeteria and lookout.

Tsewang orders a butter tea – a mix of water, wild herbs, butter and salt – while I have a “regular” tea. We sit near a group of American tourists in their 70s who are discussing renting horses to carry them the rest of the way.

We reserve a table for lunch for when we return – hopefully we’ll return – and carry on hauling ourselves up the dirt track that snakes around the side of the mountain.

Another breath-sapping hour later and suddenly we turn a corner and find the monastery poised directly at eye level – the end is in sight.

The last stretch to conquer is a knee-destroying chasm where you walk down 700 or so steps, past a frozen glacial stream, and up the other side – a vertiginous series of steps that are so close to vertical it’s like climbing a ladder of stone.

I arrive like jelly on a plate.

The view from the top of Tiger’s Nest is, quite simply, one of the most extraordinary in the world.

On this crisp, blue-sky day we’re surrounded by snow-draped mountains that rise out of the Paro valley below, where the houses look like Lego bricks we’re so far away.

The vista is overwhelming and tears swell in my eyes.

Tsewang takes me inside the monastery where a monk sits in a corner next to an altar festooned with golden statues, butter lamps and peacock feathers.

The elderly man reaches for a white scarf, places it around my neck and pours holy water from an ornate tea pot into my hand.

Behind him is a painting of Guru Rinpoche, a historical figure who brought Buddhism to Bhutan.

“He flew to this location from Tibet on the tigress and meditated in the cave here in the 8th century,” Tsewang says as we begin our two hour descent.

He delivers this comment – that sounds to me fanciful – as absolute fact. In Bhutan, an ancient religion is well and truly alive.

The location of this tiny nation – hidden away in the Himalayas – has help the country preserve its cultural and spiritual heritage.

A benevolent Royal Family, aware of the dangers of too much change too quickly, has also helped keep the country insulated from the negative aspects of the 21st century.

When the fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, was crowned in 1972, he declared he was more concerned with Gross National Happiness than with Gross Domestic Product.

Since then, protecting the environment and preserving Bhutanese culture have been the government’s top priorities.

Bhutan’s leaders have also been wary about the impact of tourism and focus on what they call “high value, low volume” tourism.

About 30,000 international tourists visited in 2010, each paying the required daily fee. In 2012 the minimum daily fee is $US250 per day per person for a basic all-inclusive package, including entry level accommodation, food and transport. If you opt for luxury accommodation this will be an extra cost on top of the minimum daily fee.

This tourist tariff has resulted in a holiday spot that’s become the antithesis of a shoestring backpacker destination.

The rich and famous, it seems, are as common as yaks in Bhutan.

“You did very well,” Tsewang says over lunch back at the cafeteria, “but Leonardo DiCaprio did it much faster… as did Keira Knightley.”

It’s not every day that your fitness level is compared to Hollywood stars.

“But when I took [late British fashion designer] Alexander McQueen it took him over nine hours.

“Alexander smoked the whole time,” he laughs.

Tsewang then falls quiet, looks into the distance and appears to be worried.

“He must have lost so much merit…” Tsewang says, shaking his head.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Bhutan is nestled in the eastern region of the Himalayas between China and India. There is no railway network, the only land access is from northern India and the only international airport is in Paro, one hour from the capital Thimpu.

The writer flew with British Airways (www.britishairways.com) from Sydney to Bangkok, Thailand, and then to Paro, Bhutan, with Druk Air (www.drukair.com.bt) – the only airline that flies to Bhutan.

RED TAPE: Tourists must book a package holiday to Bhutan through an international or local tour operator. The Royal Government of Bhutan sets minimum selling prices for packages to Bhutan and this must be paid in US dollars prior to arrival in Bhutan. Australian passport-holders require a visa to visit Bhutan. Applications for tourist visas are submitted in advance by the tour operator to Bhutan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.

STAYING THERE: The writer travelled with COMO Hotels’ Uma Paro (www.uma.paro.como.bz), which operates as a fully licensed travel agency and ground handler. This means Uma Paro can arrange Druk Air seats to and from Bangkok, Paro transportation, take care of visas and make sure all government taxes are paid. The hotel also offers numerous full-service treks, as well as biking or day excursions with experienced English-speaking guides.

Uma Paro’s entry level rooms are $US290 per night, a one bedroom villa is $US690 per night and a two bedroom villa is $US1000 per night. Rates are inclusive of breakfast. The villas feature separate bedrooms, a lounge area with a traditional woodburning stove, a private spa treatment area and a personal butler service.

Uma Paro has a range of packages. The three night Himalayan Escape includes visits to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery, the National Museum, Drukgyel Dzong and the ancient temple of Kyichu Lhakhang. There is also time to relax at Uma Paro, with the package including one COMO Shambhala Massage per person. Costs from $US2885 per room (based on two sharing) and $2130 per room (single occupancy).

• The writer was a guest of Uma Paro and British Airways.

Article source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/12803438/entering-the-tiger-s-nest-of-bhutan/

Newswise — Project Look Sharp, an initiative at Ithaca College that promotes media literacy, will work with the Kingdom of Bhutan as it attempts to enter into modernity in a conscious and thoughtful way that is consistent with its cultural values.

Located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and considered by some to be the inspiration for the mythical Shangri-la, Bhutan first allowed television into the country in 1999. It is a constitutional monarchy that measures the quality of life for its citizens based on “gross national happiness.”

Bhutan’s Ministry of Information and Communications reached out for help from Project Look Sharp, which has a growing national — and now international — reputation for teaching media literacy and critical thinking.

Chris Sperry, the director of curriculum and staff development for Project Look Sharp, is spending Jan. 27–Feb. 3 in Bhutan, while associate professor of psychology and founding executive director of Project Look Sharp Cyndy Scheibe will travel there in early March.

“For most of its history, Bhutan was an absolute monarchy with one of the world’s more isolated societies,” said Sperry. “As it attempts to develop civic and democratic institutions, its leaders are also rightfully concerned that the rapid introduction of Western media influences has the potential for undermining the strength of its traditional Buddhist culture.”

Sperry says the government has already drafted a media literacy curriculum, and is teaming with Project Look Sharp to assist with its implementation. He is working primarily with officials from the Ministry of Information and Communications as well as Bhutanese educators. Scheibe will work with students completing teacher education training at the Royal University of Bhutan.

“The monarchy knew that opening up their society would have both positives and negatives,” said Sperry. “They also recognize that media literacy is a critical component of citizenship and helping transition to participatory government.”

Sperry brought with him the book “The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World,” which was coauthored by Scheibe; curriculum resources developed by Project look Sharp; and some materials specifically created for this program. “I will show examples of American media that romanticize Bhutan and help them pick it apart, then present examples of Bhutanese media that romanticize the West and help them pick that apart.”

While in Bhutan, Sperry is posting to a blog that he hopes will also serve as an interactive opportunity for both Bhutanese and American teachers and students to question and learn from one another. The blog can be read at www.looksharpblogs.org/.

Based in the Ithaca College School of Humanities and Sciences, Project Look Sharp provides lesson plans, materials, training and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all education levels.

It holds regular workshops for students and faculty on campus and around the country and has produced more than a dozen free online curriculum kits for teachers on how media “construct” such topics as presidential campaigns, the Middle East, peace and war, social justice, chemicals in the environment and sustainability.

For more information and background on Project Look Sharp, Cyndy Scheibe and Chris Sperry, visit www.ithaca.edu/looksharp/.

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She is from the adjoining township of Daranga in Assam and has come to buy kerosene. She held two 10-litre pink coupons issued by the regional trade and industry office and Nu 300(US$6) neatly rolled between her fore and middle finger.

She showed the coupon to Tashi Phuntsho, kerosene in-charge at the fuel depot, near the Bhutan post office. Without saying a word Tashi Phuntsho went inside the office with the coupons and entered it in a register.

Begum carried coupons issued in the name of two Bhutanese, Chencho and Kinzang. Begum said the coupons were given to her by a housewife in the town for whom she helps with household work.

“This time I bought the 10 litre coupons for Nu 50 each,” Begum, a mother of two, said. “Sometimes I’m given coupon in exchange of my service. But I work for three households in a day.”

After five minutes a 13-yearold girl, Chunu, came to the kerosene depot with two 10 litre coupons also issued in the names of two Bhutanese.

Chunu works for a canteen in Samdrupjongkhar town and her parents run a small momo shop in Daranga. Kerosene is used mostly for cooking.

“I work in the canteen during the day and I ask them for a kerosene coupon in return sometimes,” she said. “My parents can’t afford to buy kerosene in India for cooking momo in the shop.”

Kerosene costs Nu 26-30 a litre in Daranga whereas it is Nu 14.19 a litre in Samdrupjongkhar. This is because Bhutan imports kerosene from India as a quota item which is given at a subsidised rate.

In the border towns a Bhutanese above 18 years is entitled to 10 litres of kerosene a month and must produce a xerox copy of the citizenship identity card. An Indian national having a valid work permit is entitled to five litres a month.

Residents in Samdrupjongkhar obtain coupons from the regional trade and industry office.

The kerosene in-charge at the depot said kerosene is sold to those who come with the valid coupon, which was introduced by the ministry several years ago to curtail widescale deflection of the fuel to the Indian market. He said they do not look at nationality as long as the coupon is a valid one.

“In a day we sell at least 700 litres to Indians possessing coupons in the names of Bhutanese,” kerosene in-charge Tashi Phuntsho said. “We never ask who they are buying it for and how they got the coupon.”

In 2010, Samdrupjongkhar lifted 156,000 litres almost every month from Guwahati, 90 kms away. Last year it dropped to 144,000 litres a month.

Of this 108,000 litres a month is the requirement quoted by three plaster of paris factories. They pay Nu 14.19 a litre plus a 50 per cent surcharge, a rate fixed by the government, to the trade office. A Bhutan Oil Corporation officials said kerosene that comes to Samdrupjongkhar does not fall under commercial category, which is why the rate for commercial use was less than in Thimphu where it is Nu 33 a litre.

Another 3,000 litres is supplied to Pemagatsel, 30,000 to Mongar and remaining issued to 11 gewogs of Samdrupjongkhar of which Lauri gewog, which does not have electricity lifts more than 3,000 litres a month. Although 108,000 litres is the quoted quantity of factories not all of it is lifted every month. Around 30,000 litres remains un-lifted in a month which is added with the next month’s stock.

Regional trade and industry director Karma Drukpa said that until 2010 Gomdar gewog lifted 19,000 litres but when officials were informed of a black market a distribution system was introduced. After that it dropped to 6,000 litres a month.

“What ever quantity they lift from the depot it has to pass through Pinchina check point (Charkilo),” he said. “Otherwise the gewog distributor would be charged.”

Article source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/paying-wages-kerosene-055003201.html

Bhutan’s success in malaria control.

Flickr Yohandy

[THIMPHU] Bhutan has, over the last 17 years, dramatically reduced malaria cases, recording just one death in 2011, according to a government report.

The report, published by Bhutan’s Vector-borne Disease Control Programme (VDCP) in the Malaria Journal last month (9 January), said malaria cases declined from 40,000 in 1994 to 194 in 2011, and deaths from 42 to one during the same period.

The report highlighted the country’s success despite several challenges: difficult terrain with landslides blocking roads during the monsoon months, poor road access for 21 per cent of households and an influx of migrant labour from India, where malaria is endemic.

“We target to eliminate malaria by 2016,” Thinley Yangzom, chief programme officer of VDCP, told SciDev.Net. 

Bhutan has now almost achieved zero transmission of indigenous cases or infection passing from one person to another within a geographic area. 

Most indigenous cases were attributed to the non-fatal malaria pathogen Plasmodium vivax that accounts for 60 per cent of infections. 

In 2010, there were 436 confirmed indigenous cases, of which 261 were caused by P. vivax, 140 by P. falciparum, that causes fatal cerebral malaria, and 35 cases of mixed infections.

Bhutan’s health officials attributed the decline in malaria incidence to improved access to diagnosis and treatment facilities and increased coverage of high-risk areas with indoor residual spraying and insecticide-treated bed nets.

Of Bhutan’s 20 districts, malaria is endemic in only seven along the border with India, where the climate is favourable for malaria transmission round the year. These districts have a population of 284,512, representing 42 per cent of the country’s estimated population of 700,000.

Yangzom anticipates malaria spreading to colder regions such as Thimphu, Gasa, Paro and Bumthang because of global warming. “Climate change will definitely have an impact on malaria incidence in the future.”

No study has been done in Bhutan on the likely impact of climate change on malaria, but mosquito larvae survive better in higher temperatures.

Rinzin Namgay, co-author of the report, said as a preventative measure bednets are being distributed in colder regions where malaria cases have not been reported so far.

“We are very much concerned about erratic weather in the country,” said Namgay who is deputy chief entomologist at VDCP.

Link to the report in  Malaria Journal:

Article source: http://www.scidev.net/en/south-asia/news/bhutan-brings-down-malaria-incidence.html

Article source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/01/29/photography_show_on_bhutan

Investigations will begin tomorrow in Phuentsholing to find out if the flu would affect the wild bird population in Bhutan.

The investigation is carried out after the National Incident Command Centre (NICC) for bird flu received reports of some 18 wild birds death that died simultaneously over the last week.

First, about 15 “house crows” were found dead on January 19 near the junction of Rabten workshop and GREF camp. House crows are a species that are found in sub-tropical areas like Phuentsholing.

The satellite veterinary laboratory officer in-charge Tuku Rai said all 15 crows had decomposed and could not be used for laboratory investigation. “But we managed to find a sick crow from the same area,” Tuku Rai said. “The sample tested positive for H5 and influenza “A” virus during the filed investigation.”

But, the bird tested negative for N1 strain. Livetsock officials said there is a high chance of a different kind of bird flu virus affecting the wild crow population. “The sick crow has died but we have collected its bone marrow and brain,” Tuku Rai said. “No further crow deaths have been reported so far.”

Focal person for bird flu Dr Tashi Dorji said a “Blue Fronted Red Start” was also found dead near the regional livestock development centre in Tsimasham campus. It tested positive for H5N1.

Another pigeon that was found dead near the bird flu outbreak area at Tsimasham had also tested positive for H5N1 as well as the pigeon and a sparrow that were found dead in the Chukha hydro power colony campus.

A team comprising a wild bird specialist from the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute of Forest and Environment, veterinarians from the livestock department and an official from the satellite veterinary laboratory in Phuentsholing will investigate the deaths and study the flu’s risks to the country’s wild birds.

Dr Tashi Dorji said the investigation will monitor and find out different species of wild birds breeding in Phuentsholing,” he said. “We’ll have to collect fresh sample and find out the diseases spectrum to understand.”

The main objective of the investigation, Dr Tashi Dorji said, is to see the role of wild birds in the outbreak of bird flu in the domestic poultry population.

Another surveillance team are also doing the same investigation in Thimphu and Paro even though no deaths of wild birds have been reported so far.

All reports and samples will be sent to Bhopal, India for virus sequencing and phylogenetic studies.

With thousands of crows in Jharkhand, India reported to have died in the last two months, the NICC on January 10 had already notified all agencies in the country dealing with wild life to alert their field offices on the mortality of any wild birds.

“We urge the public to report any wild bird deaths and request poultry owners to protect their poultry birds from mixing with wild birds,” Dr Tashi Dorji said.

Article source: http://my.news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-detected-wild-birds-054004861.html